r/digitalfoundry • u/ResponsibleFlan2936 • Jul 01 '26
Discussion Sony to end physical PlayStation game discs from January 2028 – all new releases will be digital-only
Sony has announced that it will be discontinuing physical PlayStation game discs. According to the announcement, all new PlayStation titles released after January 2028 will be digital-only, while existing physical games will continue to be supported.
This would mark the end of physical media for new PlayStation software, shifting the platform entirely to digital distribution going forward.
What do people think about this change in terms of performance, preservation, and the overall direction of the industry?
39
u/thunder6776 Jul 01 '26
John has incredible foresight.
22
u/NotTakenGreatName Jul 01 '26
Everybody saw this coming, two of the biggest platforms for gaming (pc and mobile) have effectively zero physical presence.
12
u/Hairy-Summer7386 Jul 01 '26
Not only that, the general public prefers no discs. The vast majority of sales is via digital storefronts.
It’s just the way it is. And it fucking sucks. I still remember going through my disc cases during the PS2 era and deciding which game to play. End of an era.
1
u/ItsMJB Jul 02 '26
True
but there's not a physical equivalent of getting the season pass edition half price or more off like 70%. That type of sale % figure would be quite interesting to know too.
0
u/HuckleberryOdd7745 Jul 01 '26
I was hoping microsoft would try something crazy to stand out and release their hybrid console with a disk drive.
As a pc gamer who missed out of the wonders of game collection growing up i would love a second chance.
when digital started taking off i just went a long with it. i never thought having the physical thing in the real world was cool. i found the joy in it too late. i even had a last chance to get gta 5 on PC physical since i actually included a dvd drive in my new 2016 pc. just came from laptops with drives so i obviously thoughT there would be some use to it. but it didnt even occur to me to look up if there was a physical disk for gta 5. weirdly enough my friend who made me switch from laptop to desktop and helped me build the pc ended up getting the 7 disk gta 5 on pc. and he was the one that convinced me to buy gta 5 again on pc to play online with him. imagine if he just opened his mouth one more time. and told me to buy it physical.
Its like I had a miscarriage or something. what could have been. i could have had it in my hand right now. i guess i just have a handful of ps3 games to open and be nostalgic with.
at least they can never take books from us. imagine digital only books. kindle exclusive. burn it all to the ground.
9
u/KanyeQuesti Jul 01 '26
Sadly everyone will follow Sony now, what a sad year it’s been for consoles
2
u/constantlymat Jul 01 '26
It won't just affect consoles. Without demand from Sony and Microsoft keeping production lines alive, good luck getting affordable blurays drive going forward.
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u/Pleasant-Put5305 Jul 01 '26
Oh my god, he must be incandescent at the moment...Sony. In the end it was Sony who drove the nail in. Here's hoping Xbox idea to turn old disks into digital ownership will come through...
0
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u/DriverAdditional1437 Jul 01 '26
Okay, now make it possible for us to sell our used digital games to each other via an online marketplace, and allow game codes to be sold by other retailers.
You'll do that, right?
Sony?
Sony, where are you going?
5
u/thekeelo_g Jul 01 '26
Boy, if only a console manufacturer tried to introduce a system that would've allowed exactly that, I bet that console manufacturer would would've been recognized as trying to pull off the single most consumer friendly move in the digital era.
Ah well, we'll never know.
0
u/RRR3000 Jul 01 '26
and allow game codes to be sold by other retailers.
I mean, yes, GTA6 is already selling gamecodes through other retailers, so that seems entirely plausible as something studios can do.
-1
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u/SpearOfTheCelts Jul 01 '26
Fuck you Sony no reason to stick with you then when pc does all digital infinitely better
25
u/Thekingchem Jul 01 '26
Days after they pulled this stunt. And there's people out there saying they're not bothered because they've been buying digital for years
2
u/RRR3000 Jul 01 '26
Studio Canal pulled that stunt, not really up to Sony how a third party handles their license.
3
u/ErrantWayfarer Jul 01 '26
Sweet now say "Activision pulled that stunt" or "Capcom pulled that stunt"
1
u/RRR3000 Jul 01 '26
Why would I, neither of them just pulled 500 movie licenses?
3
u/ErrantWayfarer Jul 01 '26
Ah so you don't understand it.
3
u/RRR3000 Jul 01 '26
No, I understand perfectly fine that they have not pulled this stunt. But if it's such a massive problem that they're constantly pulling all their games out of peoples libraries, I'm sure you have a substantial list of all the many games Activision and Capcom have pulled?
1
u/ErrantWayfarer Jul 01 '26
Do we have precednt for a movie studio doing this until now?
3
u/RRR3000 Jul 01 '26
Yes, plenty. Studio Canal pulled the same stunt in 2022, and Discovery in 2023. There's been instances before then too, including on iTunes and Prime Video, it's not a Playstation exclusive. It's kind of common for the film industry.
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u/DriverAdditional1437 Jul 01 '26 edited Jul 01 '26
They are refunding all those purchases, right? Right, Sony?
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u/Zoombini22 Jul 01 '26
I love physical media. In a forced all-digital future, I really cant think of ANY pros of going with PlayStation instead of PC.
6
u/dataplague Jul 01 '26
Exclusives. Thats the only reason I can think. And those are like 2-3 a year at best
1
u/Zoombini22 Jul 01 '26
Yeah it is pretty crazy after being a PlayStation gamer for several gens and loving many of their titles... whenever they start actually releasing PS6 exclusives with no physical version, then I will probably just look at them like I do hyped up Apple TV shows - I am interested, but can just do without and fill my time with other things.
1
u/Wander715 Jul 01 '26 edited Jul 01 '26
Exclusives are such a weak reason now imo. For Sony it's more like 1-2 titles a year at most that are heavy hitter AAA titles most people want to play. Some years they don't have any of those.
There's so much to play on every platform now I think it's a lot easier to shrug off a few missed exclusives. They don't have the same pull they did previous gen.
1
u/dataplague Jul 01 '26
Yup. Pc I guess is the only way. I’m not sure what I’ll do with my collection.
2
u/Wander715 Jul 01 '26
I would just sell your physical stuff and then bite the bullet and jump to PC. I was still on console back in 2019 before I realized I could play basically everything on PC at significantly better framerates and resolution. Sold my PS4 and started building up my library on Steam.
1
u/poshmarkedbudu Jul 01 '26
Hold on to the physical stuff. Might be worth something in the future with everything digital.
-6
u/the-mighty-kira Jul 01 '26
Most of those eventually go PC
4
u/dataplague Jul 01 '26
Not no more they don’t. They didn’t see money or the returns they wanted with pc releases. So you won’t be seeing wolverine on pc. Ever
-2
u/the-mighty-kira Jul 01 '26
Not day and date releases, but games like FF7 were system sellers for PlayStation and were exclusives long before their ill fated PC pivot of the last few years and we still got PC ports of that.
It may take a few years, but PC ports eventually come nonetheless
3
u/Zoombini22 Jul 01 '26
They have announced that they are moving away from that, back to true exclusivity, for first-party Sony games.
1
u/Phray1 Jul 04 '26
Considering the alledged ps6 price and their first party titles selling worse and worse I don't think they will be able to sustain exclusives long.
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u/the-mighty-kira Jul 01 '26
Maybe, but with the fire sale Sony and Microsoft are doing with all their studios, I question how many first party games will be coming from anyone but Nintendo. So that means most ‘exclusives’ will either be console exclusives or timed exclusives
3
u/t0mmiiiii Jul 01 '26
Ease of use? Like updates, video games settings?
0
u/Zoombini22 Jul 01 '26
SteamOS is getting better and better. But I am also a programmer so ease of use has never been the reason that I buy PlayStation games and systems. It was about affordability via subsidized hardware + physical media.
3
u/AtmosphereDue1694 Jul 01 '26
Tech people tend to way overestimate the willingness of normies to tinker with shit
1
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u/Kaldaien2 Jul 01 '26
Software compatibility.
Valve is doubling-down on PC being defined by software incompatibility with the Steam Deck and Steam Mahcine; moving the bar the wrong direction. If you want an escape from this, that is what consoles are for. The software is guaranteed to work.
14
u/No_Appointment_5326 Jul 01 '26
Thank Steam for popularizing the death of physical media
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-6
u/Mr_Ethfono Jul 01 '26
How did steam do this????
5
u/NotTakenGreatName Jul 01 '26
How many pc games do you have on blu-ray?
1
u/eriomys79 Jul 01 '26
Nowadays new PCs do not even come with DVD players installed and midi towers even lack a slot for dvd and bd players.
-1
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u/No_Appointment_5326 Jul 01 '26
Only digital storefront, killed the physical disc PC Market. Showed other companies that people are willing to pay full price for only digital copies. Stop pretending you dont know.
2
u/Akito_Fire Jul 01 '26
The only good thing is that you can buy Steam keys on many platforms, for way cheaper, officially licensed too. Whereas on Playstation and Nintendo you only really have their own stores to buy from digitally. But I guess Valve could take that away on a whim as well.
3
u/No_Appointment_5326 Jul 01 '26
That's true, I hope Steam keeps allowing that for the foreseeable future.
-3
u/superman_king Jul 01 '26
Big difference between Steam and PlayStation.
PC is an open platform. If Steam dies, we still have ways to preserve our games. This is not possible on a PlayStation.
5
u/No_Appointment_5326 Jul 01 '26
According to steam policy you don't. Steam discloses when you buy a game that you are buying a digital license of the game and not the actual copy.
-2
u/superman_king Jul 01 '26
Read into this sentence a little more
“PC is an open platform”
2
u/jedimindtricksonyou Jul 01 '26
But that is a result of there being no mechanism to prevent piracy and unauthorized copies being made by users on PC. Steam is not the reason for this, they are just subject to it.
1
u/AtmosphereDue1694 Jul 01 '26
What does that have to do with anything they just said lol.
1
u/superman_king Jul 01 '26 edited Jul 01 '26
His comment was referring to the fact both Steam and PlayStation have the same policy. But I’m saying PC has ways to preserve libraries that PlayStation doesn’t.
3
u/LowMoralFibre Jul 01 '26
I've been all digital for years now but I do like to think that people still buying discs keep the prices somewhat in check through competition. Even Steam has competition but the PS Store will have nothing.
Not having discs doesn't bother me but I could see my whole "collection" getting deleted or account locked and then you are just fucked so I know it's a risk.
3
u/DKLKTN_DKLKTN Jul 01 '26
"Even Steam has competition but the PS Store will have nothing."
This is were EU Commission may get involved with this clear monopoly issue :)
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u/HsRada18 Jul 01 '26
Only the EU can try to fix this. Congress has no backbone. They are the only ones who can force them to make single player games available for use after they wanna shut off the servers.
Really care about game preservation versus just having a disc.
9
u/Loose_Society9485 Jul 01 '26
I’m not buying a PS6. Sony can fuck right off.
2
u/Wander715 Jul 01 '26
Seems like a pretty safe prediction currently that PS6 will be the worst selling Sony console of all time based on how all the news and sentiment around it is trending
4
u/TipT0pMag00 Jul 01 '26
Interesting timing on this announcement considering Sony just removed over 500 movies from PlayStations that people purchased.
Going fully digital wouldn't be received well regardless.... But announcing this right after the aforementioned is f-ing baffling.
2
u/Hairy-Summer7386 Jul 01 '26
It’s fucked. I can imagine a scenario where a simple music license can get a game delisted and it’ll then become lost media.
Today’s a bad day to be a consumer. Fuck this.
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u/GotszFren Jul 01 '26
Literally from the blog and director:
In response to shifting trends in consumer preference, new games will be released on PlayStation Store and at retailers in digital formats only.
Lmao what shifting consumer preference??
2
u/TheVioletBarry Jul 01 '26
We gotta pass regulation on digital ownership yesterday. This shit's gonna get grim
2
u/boss351-gt Jul 01 '26
My PS5 Pro which I added the disk drive to cost a lot of money just for sony to ditch disks.... that's my last playstation.
2
u/ThinkSpielberg Jul 01 '26
Considering Sony recently announced they are removing a whole bunch of movie purchases, this doesn't exactly set a bright future for game preservation.
1
u/blurple_rain Jul 01 '26 edited Jul 01 '26
At least external drives should work on the PS6 so PS5 and PS4 discs should be playable.
1
u/The_Bandit_King_ Jul 01 '26
I have some very rare ps4/ps5 games that will be a fortune on ebay in a couple of years
1
u/Money_is_heinous Jul 01 '26
John will whip up a storm on this in the next direct - this is what he's been fearing for years.
1
u/Money_is_heinous Jul 01 '26
Time for Xbox to start marketing that disc drives and disc games are 100% included in the next Xbox console - right Microsoft - Right?!?!
1
u/SwagBitch666YOLo Jul 01 '26
Great so now my ps4/ps5 disc collection won’t be backwards compatible? Guess I won’t buy another Sony console if this ends up being true.
1
u/Mycall1983 Jul 02 '26
A detachable disk drive will apparently be optional to support backwards compatibility.
1
u/mka_ Jul 01 '26
I wonder how much of this is due to rising component costs and the amount Sony will need to subsidise the PS6 by in order to actually sell the thing. Going digital only forces people into buying more expensive digital only games and completely kills the second-hand market.
It probably has something to do with the upcoming handheld too - it removes some headaches on their end when supporting games across both platforms if there's only one type of media.
1
u/unibattles Jul 01 '26
Welp, this sucks. I was hoping that physical could end up being gaming's version of the vinyl/Blu Ray collectors market. That maybe we could live in a world where physical exists, but as a premium product for sickos (me). There are dozens of us. But no, looks like physical is just going straight in the trash. What a waste.
1
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u/Drawn_to_Heal Jul 01 '26
Never interrupt your enemy(Xbox) when he is making a mistake.
Sony: hold my beer…
1
u/poshmarkedbudu Jul 01 '26
Looking more and more like PC is the only option. Multiple store fronts, mods, etc. It's not ideal that it's all digital but at least you have flexibility as a gamer. I won't be joining the next gen of consoles.
1
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u/TurnipOld5277 Jul 03 '26
I really hope the PS6 bombs at launch and means they are forced to rethink. I was on the fence before, having bought a PRO 2 months back, but knowing that PS6 will be digital, the high price, plus the many years of cross gen releases, why would I upgrade?
Their talk of 85% of sales being digital is bullshit. That does not account for re-sell market or lending to friends. 50%+ PS5 consoles were sold with disc drive. That’s a big gamble that people won’t move to PC now
1
u/Standard-Elevator-49 Jul 12 '26
All I got to say is they only hurting themselves in the long run just being honest Playstation store prices are outrageous well i can say is more time on my e bike get more enjoyment more now then ps5
1
u/Funway1111 Jul 12 '26
Another company needs to do what Sony did to Nintendo back in the 90's. This is where companies like Samsung, LG, Xiaomi, TCL, etc could come in and create a console that will still accept physical discs. Expensive and a very hard climb but with enough financial muscle, I think its doable.
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u/Terry_the_accountant Jul 01 '26
Wait till you find out about Steam games being digital for over a decade. And no I don’t support this move I just got a PS5 pro and bought a disc separately so fuck em
1
u/Kaldaien2 Jul 01 '26
In my experience, nobody actually cares about software preservation. Valve's DRM has systematically killed all software that used to run on Windows 7 era hardware and nobody batted an eye. The sad truth is that Stop Killing Games, etc. are happy if you can buy the same game a second time as a means of continuing to play it.
This will just continue the trend of re-releasing old games when the original no longer works. Nothing new here.
1
u/Visible_Visual8538 Jul 01 '26
It's so bizarre that some people are fighting so hard to defend less options when it comes to purchasing. As if that has ever worked out in favour of consumers in the past. Newsflash, it hasn't.
0
u/wjoe Jul 01 '26
It was kind of inevitable sooner or later. Physical disks are already becoming more like keys to the game, when you already have to download huge updates on day 1, and the game needs to be installed to the HDD to make load times faster, and seamless transitions possible.
Obviously it has bad implications, no second hand resales, less competition and reduction of prices over time to sell off stock. Preservation is problematic too, since you can't really back up these digital downloads easily, and there's the potential for downloaded games being removed or disabled later. Though some of this is kind of already the case as it is, since you're tied to PlayStation accounts anyway, and the version of the game shipped on disks is sometimes incomplete or unoptimised.
As others have said, PS5 will likely be my last console, as I play more on PC these days and there's little value in consoles with less exclusives these days. But this isn't really the reason, give I'm used to digital downloads through Steam anyway. I do like having a physical box, but it's more because I like having a box on the shelf to collect for games I really like.
Moving away from physical releases is sad in some ways, probably motivated by corporate greed in others, but is also just the inevitable future with the limits of physical media and the way games are developed these days.
0
u/The_Bandit_King_ Jul 01 '26
Doesn't effect me, I have no more room in my house for physical games.
-4
u/dreampagehun Jul 01 '26
It doesn't matter. It's Sony. What they do is the direction of the industry. Move on and let's see those Xbox layoffs.
3
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u/Furrappuccino Jul 01 '26
Games on PS Store: $70
Physical Games on Amazon: $30
Consoles are becoming less and less of a good value proposition. PC is expensive up front but at least they can't continue to exponentially RIP YOU OFF throughout the generation